Mitch Sneed at Large

I hated to hear that Jerry Reed died Monday. Reed was the first of many country music singers to cross over and do a little acting.
Today’s kids may know him as the jerkish football coach in Adam Sandler’s “The Waterboy,” but you had to know him when he was playing Cledus Snow with Burt Reynolds in “Smokey and The Bandit.”
I have to admit that I may not be the most objective person here. I do own the box set of “Smokey and The Bandit” movies and I did get the chance to meet Reed.
The original movie was shot in my hometown. It was 1976 when Hollywood came to Jonesboro. Reynolds, Reed, Jackie Gleason and Sally Field were spotted regularly in our town. Many people in our community grabbed jobs as extras and the places we frequented every day were featured in the movie.
A bunch of us heard they were shooting a scene at an old house in Jonesboro so we all skipped football practice to ride over and watch.
It turned out to be the opening scene in the movie, where Burt went to get his buddy Cledus to drive the truck while they went on a Coors beer run to Texarkana.
Back then you couldn’t get Coors east of the Mississippi. The movie Texarkana beer warehouse was really a tire warehouse a block from the courthouse in Jonesboro, Georgia.
But during a break they had all sorts of catering tables spread out in the yard of that house and all the extras ate right there with the actors. When they were done Reed walked across the street, eating a banana to talk to all of us rubber neckers.
Reed was just a regular guy. He asked us our names, if we were skipping school and what we thought about all the commotion. He signed autographs and told us about the Trans Am that Reynolds was hot dogging around in.
“He’ll end up wrecking 10 of those before the movie is over,” Reed laughed.
I hear the actual number was 14 before Reynolds was done.
He may not have been known much of an actor then, but he was a big deal at my house. My parents played country music non-stop in our cars when I was a kid.
He had his share of hit records. Yeah, they were records back then. There was “Amos Moses,” “When You’re Hot, You’re Hot,” and “East Bound and Down” to mention a few.
But to me, those five minutes he spent with a bunch of pimple-faced kids made a fan of me. I’d watch anything he was in, listen to anything he sang and I still do if I find it on cable.
Heck, I might even dig out the box set tonight.